Goldman Sachs is scaling back – in New York

Remaoner scaremongering is becoming a thing of legend. Endless stories of horror, few or indeed, any, yet to come true.

The classic one led by the odious British Bankers Association is that all banks are preparing to leave London before Xmas.

The thing is, every single company in the UK, EU and US is using Brexit as a perfect event excuse. Cut salaries – Brexit
Cut costs by firing staff – Brexit
Ripping off Customers – desperation, caused by Brexit.

Unfortunately, you can never prove a counter-factual. Goldmans is getting rid of people because its business is changing and the environment is changing. Whether Brexit related or not, the answer will always be Brexit because it suits all management to blame someone or something else other than themselves.

The wider point is that Banking is changing massively, really massively, the internet is fast disintermediating humans from the process of banking and the likes of Blockchain are only going to accelerate this trend. The big bank model is likely on the wane and there will be a big shift in moving to FinTech companies and a more diverse supplier base of services. It is just that as this happens, every job loss will be blamed on Brexit when actually something more interesting, more dynamic, yes…more capitalistic, is occurring. Which will also be more fun to write about than fact-checking remoaner lies.